Page 9 of Love Unwrapped
Andi shook her head as she walked into the prep room. That man confounded her. He’d shoot her looks that made the skin on her arms pebble with goose bumps, drawing her interest. Then he’d open his mouth and say the most annoying things, raising her hackles. She couldn’t help her responses to him. And that irritated her more than anything. She was always in control. Always. She rubbed her forehead as she looked around the room at rolling racks full of baked cookies. How had all this been completed since she’d left last night?
“You look tired,” Bree said, already wearing an apron and gloves and sitting at the workstation, packing the cookies as if it were the most natural thing in the world to do. They had left at the same time the previous night. Did Bree not notice all the work that had been done? She glanced around as if trying to figure out what Andi was thinking, then waved a hand at the new cookies. “Let it go. He clearly works hard. I can’t believe how many cookies he got done after we left.”
“Yeah, I can’t either. I think he had to have had help,” she said, washing her hands in the sink before tying on her apron and sidling up to her stool, turning toward Bree.
“Yeah? Like little magic fairy people?” Bree nodded toward the cookies she’d placed in front on Andi’s spot and pushed a pair of gloves her direction. “We’re behind, remember? The whole lecture you gave me on the phone on the way here this morning about getting everything packaged so we can get done and out of here?”
Andi ignored her, again looking around the room as if seeing it for the first time. Two military looking men, working all night, tucked away inside a bakery.What in the world?Maybe she’d misread Blake entirely. Could he be gay?
“Well, look what we have here.” The stark clap of hands smacking together made her jump. Both she and Bree turned toward the masculine voice that didn’t belong to Blake. “My orders just got better, and this place got a whole lot prettier.”
Blake walked out of the office behind him and gave this new guy a glare as he walked past. “No monkey business. Got it? Cookies in bags, pretty bow. Repeat.” He pointed a finger at his friend and kept eye contact by walking backward toward the door to the main kitchen area, leaving the grinning man behind.
Bree beamed as she stared up at the guy, all rugged and super-muscled up. Andi’s eyes narrowed at the words that were clearly meant to be charming. His hand shot out first to Bree, who dropped the current cookie in her hands back on the table, yanked off her glove, and eagerly accepted it. When he reached for Andi’s, his dark eyes showed an age and wisdom of someone who had seen the world and had the emotional scars to prove it. Her heart softened, so did her stiff hand as she acquiesced to his greeting.
“I’m Ryan.”
“I’m Bree. This is Andi.”
“Which one of you has the past with my boy in there?”
Andi’s back straightened right up again and she turned to the cookies, dismissing the man and the question. Her past, with Blake or anyone else, had nothing to do with today and was no one’s business.
“I don’t. Do you?” Bree sucked in her breath and let it out in a whoosh of words. “Thatwas your problem yesterday. Makes sense now.” Bree’s grin grew.
She chose to ignore Bree too and took over the situation, redirecting the conversation using her most authoritarian voice. “We’re behind. If you’re going to be in here, start packaging cookies.”
Ryan stiffened beside her for a nanosecond before he laughed so hard that the loose hair from her ponytail stirred in her face. She nearly groaned as he strolled to the seat catty-corner to her. He couldn’t have taken either of the open spaces across from her?No, of course not. “All right then. Can’t say it’s the first time I’ve seen people bristle at something Blake has done, but it’s usually not the ladies. He’s gotten some husbands pretty upset a time or two.”
Oh God, how in the world had her self-lectured and forced positive mood this morning already taken such a freefall?
“He’s pretty charming. I can see how the ladies like him,” Bree drawled, taking on Ryan’s Blake’s-a-ladies-man tone. “Did y’all work all night?”
“Felt like it. He’s a slave driver,” Ryan said, resting his forearms on the worktable instead of donning gloves and packaging cookies. Andi wanted to scowl at him but refrained.
“Hey, y’all are here early,” Chelsea said, coming through the door with a coffee in hand. “Blake kicked ass last night. With a little luck, we’ll have these cookies done by tomorrow.”
“You got some new ink,” Ryan said, standing as Chelsea strolled over to the table to chat with them. Ryan hopped off his stool and gave her a big bear hug.
She lifted her shirt sleeve when she stepped back, showing some flushed, freshly tattooed skin. “Blake’s design in memory of my dad.”
Bree stood, going around the table to take a better look.
“Like Blake, Blake? This Blake drew this?” Bree turned Chelsea for Andi to get a better look at the angel taking flight that was inked on Chelsea’s upper arm and encompassing part of her shoulder.
“Yeah, he’s an artist. He’s in there now decorating a wedding cake. His baked goods are excellent, but it’s his cake designs that people pay the big bucks for. Better than so many people with formal training.” A ding from the front drew Chelsea’s attention and she scampered back through the doorway to the front of the store.
A long-forgotten memory of one of the many times Blake had overdone all the attention he forced on her in high school and came to her with an apology note. He had skillfully drawn a blooming rose in the middle. There were no words written, just the beautifully drawn rose.
“She’s a hard nut to crack.” Ryan’s words took her out of her musings. She looked down at her hands where she had absently continued packing the cookies, one right after the other, completely tuning them out. He leaned closer to Bree and whispered, “What’s her deal?”
“She’s an attorney. I work for her at Rora Airlines. She never gives an inch. It’s why she’s so good at her job. I haven’t told her this before, but the COO calls to get me to butter her up before they talk. I even tried having some Manly Cakes cupcakes delivered.” Bree beamed at Andi. “They didn’t work. It never works. When she has a mission, nothing stops her.”
Bree had told her that story before, but it still made her smile.
“An attorney, huh?” Ryan said, winking at Bree. Thankfully, Chelsea interrupted them, coming inside the prep room again. “I think my boy’s shooting high with this one.”
Chelsea laughed a commiserating little chuckle, giving Ryan a hand slap as she passed by. “Right? Do you guys want some music? We’ve got a system over here. I could crank up some tunes so you can bust these cookies out and make room to bake the rest. I want to get y’all home before midnight.”
